


Fever

by FriendLey



Category: Lost in Space (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, Nightmares, Season 3 Speculation, Sick Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28729710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendLey/pseuds/FriendLey
Summary: Maureen has overworked herself trying to reunite their Jupiter with that of the kids'. She’s sick with fever and her sleep is often disturbed by nightmares. Good thing John is there to comfort her through it.
Relationships: John Robinson/Maureen Robinson, Maureen Robinson & Penny Robinson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Fever

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place post Season 2.

They arrived in the colony in the summer, which meant that the kids didn’t have to go to school. At the moment, Judy was in the hospital on duty, Will was somewhere in the backyard helping his dad with some DIY furniture, and Penny was out on a week long trip to the lake with the Dhars. 

Maureen didn’t know why she worried so much for Penny. Despite her second daughter not wanting to leave Earth, and the whole being lost in space experience which did not endear the journey to Penny at all, her daughter was doing pretty well, all things considered. 

Maureen was distracted from her musings by the sound of a Chariot pulling up in their driveway. That must be Penny back from her trip. 

Maureen went out to greet the Dhars when she saw Prisha coming out of the passenger side of the vehicle, wearing a subdued expression on her face. 

Maureen craned her neck to try and spot Penny but couldn’t see her. Maybe she was in the back. 

Maureen reached Prisha who immediately took Maureen’s hands and said, “Maureen, there was an accident.” 

“What kind of accident?” 

Maureen never got a reply. Victor emerged from behind the Chariot, carrying an unconscious Penny in his arms. Trailing after him was Vijay, looking absolutely distraught. 

Maureen ran to her daughter who Victor lay on the ground. 

There was something wrong with the way Penny looked. She looked bloated and wet and blue. 

Maureen reached out a shaky hand and touched clammy skin. 

She began to shake her head and whimpered. “No, no.” 

“There was a rip current," Victor was saying but Maureen couldn’t hear any of it. 

Her daughter. Her baby girl. 

Maureen pulled Penny's lifeless body in her arms, clutching it to her chest. 

“I don’t understand,” she said, voice breaking. “She--she can swim, she’s a good swimmer.” 

“Maureen, there was nothing we could do,” said Victor and it took everything that Maureen had to tear her eyes away from her daughter and to look at Victor. “We waited for days until her body floated back to shore.” 

Maureen let out a guttural cry and turned to her daughter again but Penny was gone. 

“Where--" Maureen scrambled to her feet, frantically looking around. 

Penny's body had disappeared and so had the Dhars. She was back on the shore in the Water Planet. 

She took a breath of air but gasped. Her skin and throat burned as the toxic air entered her system. Maureen dropped down to hear knees, choking. Her vision started to blur and she saw someone in a space suit walk towards her. 

“HELP!” Maureen screamed in her head. 

The person knelt in front of her. 

It was Penny! 

The teenager stared at Maureen, doing nothing to assist her. 

Penny’s mouth moved and even without a radio, Maureen understood every word she said. “You shouldn't have let us go.” 

It would’ve been better had Maureen woken up suddenly, but she didn’t. The image of Penny was seared in her mind. Her eyelids were heavy, her mind was cloudy, and every inch of her body ached. After some considerable effort, she managed to open her eyes, visions of Penny fading away.

She was in her room. John was asleep beside her. 

They weren’t in Alpha Centauri. They were still in space, trying to find the kids. 

Penny was with her siblings. Penny was in the colony. Penny was safe. 

“It was just a dream, just a dream,” Maureen thought to herself. Penny is alive. Penny is fine. 

“You don’t know that,” said a voice in the back of her head. “It’s been three months since they went through the rift. She could be floating in a lake on Alpha Centauri for all you know.” 

Maureen could almost taste the bile rising in her throat. She moaned and with all her strength, sat up quickly enough to throw up on the floor. 

… 

“How is she?” asked Don. 

John had just left his compartment, taking with him a tray of half-eaten food.

“Well, she hasn’t puked her breakfast yet. She’s still running a little hot. But she’s learned her lesson. She won’t be skipping meals and living off of coffee and zero sleep anymore after this.” 

Don shook his head, crossing his arms. “I wish Judy was here. She’d know what those drugs in the med bay can do.” 

“ _I_ know what the drugs in the med bay can do. I went through the training. And I’m giving them to Maureen round the clock. But the meds can only do so much. She needs rest.” John put a hand on Don’s back and ushered him away from the closed door. His voice was low when he told the mechanic, “Listen, I don’t want you or the other guys talking about what you found within earshot of our room. I don’t want her thinking about anything else other than getting better.” 

They entered the hub and John put away the tray and put the food in the fridge 

“I don’t know, man. She might be encouraged to get better if she knew.” 

“Trust me. Maureen’s only going to want to find out more about the signal and work is the last thing she needs. Besides, it could be nothing. I’m not saddling her with that.” 

Don gave him a salute. “Alright, alright. But she’s gonna get bored out of her mind in there. Massage her, read her a book, I know a couple of magic tricks—” 

“I’ll take care of her. Just make sure you figure out what's broadcasting that signal."

… 

“Feeling any better?” 

Maureen was wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, eyes half open, and face flushed red as her hair. 

She grunted in reply. 

“I’ll take that as a no.” John placed a wet washcloth on his wife’s forehead. It wasn’t often that John was able to do this for Maureen; she rarely got sick. But John had enough experience with sick kids to know what to do.

If only they had hot chocolate. 

“Why don’t you get some more sleep, babe?” 

There was a small shake of her head and John frowned. He opened his mouth, about to protest when Maureen’s warm hand touched his wrist. 

“Read to me,” she croaked. 

John hesitated. Maureen needed to sleep. The bags under her eyes were the darkest John’s seen them and when he woke up this morning to Maureen heaving and sobbing and her mumbling incoherent words about Penny and drowning, well, he was half tempted to drug her unconscious. 

But he supposed a good story might get her to fall asleep. 

He nodded, leaving her side for a minute to get a book. The closest one he had without having to leave the room was his copy of Lost in Space. 

He sat beside her and began to read. 

It wasn’t long before the story successfully pulled Maureen into a deep sleep. 

John closed the book and put it aside. He took the washcloth and dipped it in cold water again. He wrung it out and then placed it back on her forehead. 

He stroked her cheek softly. He wanted nothing more than to stay here with her, but he knew that there was still that signal they discovered hours ago. Was it another ship? Another robot? Alpha Centauri? He moved to leave but Maureen whimpered in her sleep and John couldn’t bear to go. 

Don would have to deal with the signal without him for now.

John lay back down beside his wife and stroked her hair. 

This was where he needed to be.

… 

Maureen woke up slowly and got out of bed. 

She walked out to the hallway; the floor was cold beneath her bare feet. 

She paused in the doorway of Judy’s room; her eldest daughter had fallen asleep with a tablet still shining a light on her face. Maureen shook her head. Still a first year intern, her daughter was swamped with case studies and patients’ charts. Maureen gently took the tablet away and locked it before placing it on the bedside table. 

Next she went to Penny’s room, peaking to see if the teenager was up reading another book this late at night. 

But the room was empty. 

Hmm. 

Maureen left the room and went to the Hub. Penny wasn’t there either. 

“Penny?” 

There was no answer. 

Maureen got to the ladder and descended to the garage. Maybe Penny was up for a run. 

When she reached the garage, she found the Chariot charred and burnt. 

“What the hell,” Maureen said under her breath, before walking up to it to get a better look. 

The Chariot was in the garage. There was no way that something in the Jupiter rendered it this crisp and blackened. Maureen rounded the vehicle and gasped. 

“Penny!” 

The girl was on the ground, having climbed out of the Chariot from the door on the other side. 

Maureen dropped to the ground, checking Penny for a heartbeat. 

She found none. 

“No, no! John!” Maureen hooked her hands beneath Penny’s armpits and tried to haul her up. “Judy! John! Get down here!” 

“Maureen?” came John’s voice from upstairs. 

“John! It’s Penny!” Maureen called back. “She’s hurt!” 

John appeared, an impassive look on his face. He glanced at Penny’s body and then at Maureen. “Maureen, she’s gone.” 

“No, she’s not! Where’s Judy?” Maureen’s vision started to blur with tears. She blinked vigorously, letting them fall down her cheeks. 

“We were too late. The lightning got her, honey.” 

“John, get Judy!” 

John’s arms came around Maureen and he pried her off of Penny. “She’s gone, babe. She’s gone.” 

Maureen pushed at her husband, struggling to get back to her daughter. “Let me go! She’s not dead! I can save her! If you just get Judy—" 

“Ssh,” John said in her ear, pinning her arms down, and wrapping his own arms around her so she wouldn’t move. “It’s alright. It's alright.” 

Maureen jolted awake, her hand hitting John, who had been trying to get her to calm down in her sleep, right in the eye. 

John let out an expletive but didn’t take his hands away from her. “It’s just a dream! It’s alright! You’re alright!” His touch brought Maureen back, reminding her of where she was.

Maureen sat up slowly, ignoring the pain in her head and the loud hammering of her heart. “Where's--Penny—" 

“She’s with Judy and Will. They’re in Alpha Centauri. They’re alright. They’re safe. You’re here with me in the Jupiter.” 

Maureen shut her eyes and moaned. “It seemed so real.” 

John’s hands released her and then a few seconds later he came back, bringing a cup of water to her lips. 

Maureen drank it greedily.

“Now I know why you don’t want to sleep,” said John, refilling the cup. If he had nightmares everytime he went to sleep, he would stay awake too.

Maureen drank the water again and then leaned back against the headboard. “How high is my fever?” 

“It was a hundred and two this morning. Now, it’s a hundred. You're getting better.” John put the cup away and placed a comforting hand on her leg. There were four scars there from when Penny had cut her skin up to relieve the pressure from her leg.

Was it only a year ago that they got lost in space?

John regarded his wife; she had her eyes closed but he knew she was awake. He should ask her about the nightmares but didn’t want her to relive them too soon. 

“What do you think they’re doing now?” Maureen asked suddenly, eyes still closed. 

“The kids? Hmm. Will is probably starting a museum on rocks, Judy is in the hospital maybe, and Penny is somewhere canoeing or swimming. You know she loves to swim.” 

Maureen choked back a sob, dropping her chin to her chest, tears spilling out of her eyes. 

John froze and then quickly recovered. He inched closer to her, gently pulling her in his arms. “Hey, did I say something wrong?” 

Maureen continued to cry in his chest until she calmed enough to say, “I have nightmares.” 

“Okay.” 

“They all end the same way. Penny always dies. Sometimes she drowns or she gets trampled by horses. Or she gets electrocuted. But she always dies and I’m never there because I’m here and I can’t help her. I can’t save her!” 

John said nothing, just simply rubbing his hand up and down Maureen’s back. 

He knew where she was coming from. Of all their kids, John wasn’t as close to Will as he would like and all his regrets involve how little time he got to spend with his son. Clearly, Maureen was going through the same guilt. 

“She’s not dead," John assured her. 

“You don’t know that!” 

“I do know that! Listen to me,” he pushed Maureen back slightly so he could look her in the face. Crying only made her face redder and skin hotter. John needed her to calm down. “We raised them well enough to survive on their own. You know this. We taught her never to swim by herself, to always bring someone along. You trained her to ride horses all those times in your mother's farm. She's a natural rider. And as for getting electrocuted, there aren’t any lightning bolts headed her way, okay? She’s nowhere near the trenches. She’s safe.” 

Maureen nodded slowly. In her fever addled mind, she had overlooked all those things that John mentioned. Her heart quieted somewhat and her muscles grew less tense. 

“Anyway, after the incidents in the Resolute's Dining Hall and the Water Planet, she’s probably had enough of swimming or horses. I think she’d rather curl up in her bunk, writing the sequel to her book.” 

“I wish I could read it!” Maureen said softly. She had read Penny’s memoir multiple times since they got separated and Maureen wanted for nothing more than to be there when her daughter presents her with the second book. 

“Me too,” John said, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. “Hey, I got an idea.” 

Maureen looked up at him. 

“What about you write a memoir of your own? For the kids to read when we see them again. I mean, they're going to want to know what we've been up to as much as we want to know all about their adventures.” 

“I can hardly even hold a spoon right now.” 

John chuckled. “When you’re better.” 

Maureen thought about it. It might help. Lately, all she's written were ship's logs which did nothing for her anxiety since all she ever wrote about were how far they were to even finding the kids. She didn't write about celebrating Don's birthday on board, the goat that one of the mechanics managed to being in the ship, hanging out with Ava, or even getting to form friendships with the other mechanics on the Jupiter. 

"I'll think about it." She smiled at John and then frowned. "I'm sorry about hitting you earlier."

John dismissed her apology with a shake of his head. "I can take a lot of pain, Maureen. But I can't handle it when it's you who's hurting. Get some rest, yeah?"

Maureen nodded and moved to settle back in the bed. "John?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you read to me again?"

"Lost in Space?"

"Yes, please."

"No problem."

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to see John taking care of Maureen for once.  
> As for the signal Don's trying to work out, I like to think it's the kids.


End file.
